IPOH, June 4 — Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the government will set up a "trust fund” where all cash donations for the Tabung Harapan Malaysia (THM) will be deposited in its bid to be more transparent and accountable.

He said the money could only be moved out from the account if the party doing so followed stringent measures.

"Because it is a trust fund, any party who removes money and contravenes these stipulations is committing a serious offence,” Lim said in a "live” televised interview on TV1 last night.

He also assured the public that money in the trust fund could not be used for any other purpose except to pay off the federal government’s RM 1 trillion debt.

"I can give my assurance that we will not allow this to happen, Every sen in the fund will be used to reduce the debt,” he said.

He also said the collection — reported to have crossed RM27 million yesterday morning — would unlikely be sufficient to erase the sovereign debt amount.

The Bagan MP acknowledged criticism that setting up THM was seen as a "desperate” ploy, but said the fund was a way for the government to accept the heartfelt wishes of Malaysians.

"They wanted to do something to show their love for the country. They wanted to come together and join in the effort to reduce the debt.

"For me, I believe they also wanted to show their disgust with the events that caused our debt to balloon to RM1 trillion. They wanted to show solidarity and that is one of the reasons why we set up the fund,” Lim said.

Contributions for THM, which was launched on May 30, can be deposited into Maybank account number 566010626452.